Bon's Mots

When I was in university, I took a few feminist-driven courses. In one of the classes, we were shown a pre­sen­ta­tion on sex­ism and misog­yny in ad­ver­tis­ing. Open up any fash­ion mag­a­zine, we were told, and re­ally LOOK at each im­age. Why is that women naked and sur­rounded by fully clothed, men­ac­ing men? Why is that model on her knees? It was also around the time when Marc Lepine mur­dered 14 women at the École Polytechnique in Montréal. I be­gan to look at the world differently, and fil­tered all im­ages, no mat­ter how harm­less they seemed, through strong, fem­i­nist rhetoric.

I’ve loos­ened up since then and fash­ioned my own view of what it means to be a woman and my place in so­ci­ety. Ads that got my back up so many years ago are now met with smirks or shrugs. But when I saw this print ad for Burger King, I nearly blew my tea through my nose.

With the pop­u­lar­ity of blogs and web­sites like Adrants​.com, nary a sex­ist ad goes by with­out its im­agery be­ing no­ticed and com­mented on. Given the re­al­ity of the con­sumer be­ing so in tune to what’s go­ing on, most ad­ver­tise­ments no longer hide their in­tent be­hind their im­ages be­cause, re­ally, what’s the point? They’ll be called out on it any­ways. In fact, ads these days seem to give you a wink and a nod, as if to say, “Yes, our ad is racy but we know you’re smart enough to see that. You know we’re be­ing ironic, right?”

But the BK ad is not wink­ing at us. It’s act­ing like a sleazy guy try­ing to usher us in to a peep show.

It’s not the stu­pid clichés or the fact that it’s equat­ing a sand­wich with a pe­nis. It’s the woman in the ad – why is she made up to look like a sex doll? Why is she not en­joy­ing the de­li­cious sand­wich she is about to eat? Why is she not show­ing any emo­tion? Is she, in a misog­y­nis­tic sense, sup­posed to open her mouth and eat (take) it, whether she likes it or not?

Several fast-food chains in the U.S. have hired at­trac­tive, fe­male celebri­ties to hawk their food. Food is of­ten linked to sex and Carl’s Jr. is one of the brands that gets it.

What I like about this ad is that you have a smart, beau­ti­ful and suc­cess­ful woman who re­ally en­joys eat­ing. (Note to Carl’s Jr. — more like Padma, less like Paris, please.) There is none of this eat-this-and-fit-into-a-size-2-dress blow to our self-esteem that we get from Lean Cuisine. I don’t eat burg­ers that often, but when I do in­dulge in it, yes, it can be close to or­gas­mic. The Carl’s Jr. ad is quite cheeky with its wink-wink premise that a Carl’s Jr. burger is just THAT good. At least it doesn’t ig­nore their fe­male audience.

The dif­fer­ence be­tween those ads and the BK one is what is be­ing ob­jec­ti­fied. In the Carl’s Jr. ad, the burger is the ob­ject (most men would dis­agree with me on that, but hear me out). The women are re­spond­ing with lust, en­joy­ment and grat­i­fi­ca­tion to the burger (the ob­ject). In the BK ad, how­ever, the woman is the ob­ject – the way the sand­wich is placed draws your at­ten­tion to her. She is not re­act­ing to the (as­sumed) tasti­ness of the sand­wich, be­cause frankly, who cares what she wants? the ad seems to say. She is just a prop used by the ad­ver­tis­ers to make their clever blowjob joke. Besides, aren’t women sup­posed to be sat­is­fied with their Lean Cuisine en­trees and car­rot sticks?

To be hon­est with you, I wouldn’t have that much of a prob­lem with the ad if she was lick­ing her lips in an­tic­i­pa­tion. At least she’d ap­pear more hu­man and will­ing.

I don’t know why BK stooped so low. Was the Super Seven Incher trend­ing low in their 18 – 24 male de­mo­graphic? In any case, my ap­petite for Burger King has sud­denly gone flaccid.